Sensing Alternative Motives

What would be a better name for "Sense Motive"? Empathy, the ability to detect/understand the emotions of others, seems like an obvious choice. However, I want to make detecting the intentions of others based on the Cunning ability rather than the Charisma ability, and filing Empathy under Cunning doesn't read well, and Reading (as in reading people) doesn't make intrinsic sense either; I don't want to have to list "Read (People)"

> "Why not just use Sense Motive?"
Because I'm already using "Use Magic Device," so unless I can think of a better name for that I'd have two skills with the same names as D&D skills.

Other urls found in this thread:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_of_human_nature
twitter.com/SFWRedditImages

The English language is really lacking a word here. Germans have Menschenkenntnis which basically translates to Knowledge of human nature. Oh, there's even a wiki article with that title.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_of_human_nature

That's actually pretty interesting.
In the same vein, I guess you could use psychology, but psychology isn't a very fun word.

Weird that English doesn't have a word for this.

I'd go with
It fits, and it's also good for a joke or two, which is always a bonus.

Discernment or Perspicacity.

English has a word for everything, motherfuckers. And if it doesn't, it steals it from another language and makes off like a bandit.

Exalted has "Read Intentions."

Discern?

I think sense motive is fairly appropriate.

Empathy alone isn't enough. Just because you're empathetic, doesn't mean you'll recognize the crocodile tears as such. It's often used against you.

Source: I've dealt with a few manipulative fuckers and the empathetic people they manipulate.

EG: if you leave me, I'll kill myself, boohoohoo

That's why I'm filing it under Cunning, not Charisma.

Why not rename use magic device and keep sense motive?

Body Language, you can add read or interpret in front if you like.

Insight?

4e does it

>Empathy alone isn't enough. Just because you're empathetic, doesn't mean you'll recognize the crocodile tears as such. It's often used against you.

bullshit
wikipedia:
>Empathy has many different definitions that encompass a broad range of emotional states, including caring for other people and having a desire to help them; experiencing emotions that match another person's emotions; discerning what another person is thinking or feeling;[8] and making less distinct the differences between the self and the other.[9]

Deduce Pathos

i keked

It's very possible they posted about something similar happening on imgur recently, or saw that same post I saw. Regardless, it's likely they're speaking more from ire than sense.

It also butchers it's pronunciation for no good reason most of the time. Oh English, you mutt of a language.

5e does it too

I like it because it also lends itself to things other than merely reading people. Makes it more of a "I have a bad feeling about this..." skill.

after starting this thread and reading the suggestions I'm left with a few possibilities.

Alternatives to "Sense Motive"
> Insight (a little too broad)
> Read/Discern Motive/Intent (I'd like to keep it one word if possible)

Alternatives to Use Magic Device
> Make using a magical device an Alchemy check
> Make using a magical device a base Magic ability check (Magic is one of the six basic abilities in this case)
> list "Devices" under Magic, as the skill for examining and using magical devices

Alternatively I could make a catch-all "I've got a good/bad feeling about this/them," named Insight, Instinct, Intuition, or something similar; probably file it under Wisdom if I went that route.
...If I were to file it under Wisdom I'd need to appropriate one of the standing Wisdom skills into a Cunning skill; to avoid Wisdom breaking the testing soft-cap of 10 skills. Or... idk, depending on how I word/use it Instinct could be Cunning, couldn't it? The ability to combine reason with subconscious vibes to feel out a situation?

"Interpret"

Skills
Knowledge (Bullshit)

I think the equivalent would be social engineering in English.